The Spanish Second Republic RevisitedFrom Democratic Hopes to the Civil War
(1931–1936)

In
the Series
Studies in Spanish History

Edited by Manuel
Álvarez Tardío and Fernando del Rey Reguillo

Manuel Álvarez
Tardío is Senior Lecturer in the
History of Political Thought and Social and Political Movements
at Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid. He has been a visiting
research fellow at the universities of Tufts (Boston), Madison-Wisconsin
(USA) and the Sorbonne (Paris).

Fernando del Rey Reguillo is
Professor in the History of Political Thought and Social and
Political Movements at Complutense University of Madrid.Author of The Power of Entrepreneurs.
Politics and Economy in Contemporary Spain (Oxford, 2007).

The
Spanish Civil War is one of the most studied events in modern European
history. Its origins, that is to say the politics of the Second
Republic (1931–1936), have been much debated. The republican
period has been much idealized and in particular the myth of Spanish
democracy beset by fascism, of which Franco was its leading figure,
has been much cultivated. But was this really the case? Recently
historians of the Republic have proposed a new and non-ideological
perspective on the 1930s. Spain–s path was at once different
yet in many ways similar to that of Europe during the interwar period.

The Spanish Second Republic Revisited brings together
leading and innovative specialists to analyse the main obstacles
to the consolidation of democracy in Spain and to debate the principal
stereotypes of the traditional historiography of both left and right.
The issues addressed include: the breakdown of democracy; whether
the CEDA was an opportunity or a threat; the centrist appeal under
the Republic; how the elections were viewed and conducted; the transformation
of fascism; new revelations about the Communist party; the politics
of exclusion at the local level; the perceived necessity for repression;
new perspectives on the Civil Guard; the role of intellectuals in
the Republic; and revisionism and sectarian history.

The Spanish Second Republic Revisited offers a
new and dynamic vision of why Spanish democracy failed to consolidate
itself and why it finally fell into the terror of civil war. The
book is essential reading for all those interested in modern European
history.

1
Stanley G. Payne, A Critical Overview of the Second
Spanish Republic.

2
Luis Arranz Notario, Could the Second Republic have
become a Democracy?

3
José Manuel Macarro Vera, The Socialists and Revolution.

4
Manuel Álvarez Tardío, The CEDA: Threat or Opportunity?

5
Gabriele Ranzato, The Republican Left and the Defence
of Democracy, 1934–1936

6
Nigel Townson, A Third Way? Centrist Politics under
the Republic.

7
Roberto Villa García, The Limits of Democratization:
Elections and Political Culture.

8
José Antonio Parejo Fernández, The Mutation of Falangism,
1934–1936

9
Tim Rees, Revolution or Republic? The Spanish Communist
Party.

10
Fernando del Rey Reguillo, Policies of Exclusion
during the Second Republic: a View from the Grass Roots.

11
Julius Ruiz, Old Wine in New Bottles: The Historiography
of Repression in Spain During and After the Spanish Civil
War.

12
Gerald Blaney, New Perspectives on the Civil Guard
and the Second Republic, 1931–1936.

13
Javier Zamora, Intellectuals and the Republic.

1
) Pedro Carlos González Cuevas, On the Irrelevance
of Fascism in Spain.

Notes
Bibliography
Index

“The raison d’être behind The Spanish Second Republic Revisited
is not to defend a particular ideological or political standpoint
but to elucidate and explain this dynamic, agitated period in
Spanish history in all its complexity. Certainly, this does
not mean that the authors of this volume share a common vision
of the Second Republic, but it does signal their collective
intent to escape the ideological certainties that have conditioned
so much of the work on the regime.” Nigel Townson, General
Series Editor of Sussex Studies in Spanish History

“The winners of great struggles often write histories of
their triumphs, and this was true in Spain during the decades
of the Franco regime of works about the Republic and Civil War,
1931–39. Today, few would lend credence to much of the
history that was published under this regime’s auspices. But
the losers – democrats, socialists, and anarchists, among others
on the Left – won admirers who, during the same decades, also
wrote histories that admired the losers and were starkly partisan.
Hence, an unchanging stalemate in historical interpretation
persisted: for the Francoists, their cause was nation and church
against communism, among other evils; for others, the events
pitted a democratic people against fascism. Over the past three
decades, however, new critical historians have found their voice
in Spain and elsewhere. This important volume, devoted to key
movements and moments in the Republic, is a collection of 15
articles by such historians, most of whom are Spanish. Their
work is both powerful and provocative, and will invite both
severe criticism and thoughtful engagement. For example, one
historian observes that leftist socialists “were embarked on
a trail of absurdities…” and ultimately were “irresponsible.”
Summing up: Essential.” Choice

“The present volume is a welcome
addition to Nigel Townson’s Sussex Studies in Spanish History
which
continues to offer to English-language readers significant
studies of twentieth-century Spain. Like all good histories,
this collection of fourteen essays by mostly Spanish scholars
debunks myths, i.e. “an idyllic vision of the Republic and
a Manichean version of its collapse” (p. 4).

Given its goal of “de-sacralization,” it is fitting that Stanley
Payne provides “A Critical Overview” of the Republic. His
essay is remarkable for its ability
to place the Second Republic into the context of interwar European politics and
to compare it – rather unfavourably – to the more democratic Weimar Republic
which “maintained equal constitutional rights for all sectors of politics and
society” (p. 11). Payne makes the stimulating case that the final phase of the
Spanish Republic should be compared not to Weimar of 1933 but rather of 1923
“amid … political crisis, hyperinflation, social collapse, political extremism,
and, finally, insurrections from left and right” (p. 15). The
inclusion [in this volume] of more social/economic context
might lead to a greater understanding
of both the left’s revolutionary desires and the right’s
fear of the same. Nevertheless, this coherent collection
accomplishes its main goal of offering to scholars the most
innovative scholarship on the Second Republic. All students
of Spanish history will profit greatly from consulting it.”
Michael Seidman, University of North Carolina, Wilmington,
Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies

Reviewed
in European History Quarterly, 2013:
43(3), 519–597, by Alejandro Quiroga, University of Newcastle,
UK.

Reviewed
by Sasha D. Pack, in the Journal of Modern History, The University of Chicago Press/JSTOR, May 2014 .

This
collection of solidly right-of-centre essays opens with a
critical overview of the Republic by
Stanley Payne in which he highlights the tension between
democracy and constitutionalism on the one hand, and arbitrary
government and revolution on the other, leading ultimately,
to ‘the most complex political situation to be found anywhere
in interwar Europe’ (13). One of his principal findings is
that the historiography of the Republic is still floundering
in the realm of myth, if not intellectual laziness and banality.
This edited volume sets itself the ambitious task of righting
this wrong. Reviewed in the Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 2014

Publication Details

Hardback ISBN:

978-1-84519-459-8

Paperback ISBN:

978-1-84519-592-2

Page Extent / Format:

320 pp. / 229 x 152 mm

Release Date:

December 2011

Illustrated:

No

Hardback Price:

£55.00 / $74.95

Paperback Price:

£22.50 / $34.95

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